14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier today, we were still skeptical about the latest leaks concerning new Macs, but Apple has indirectly confirmed those rumors. The Apple online store is down, showing the “We'll be back soon” sign.
Yesterday, leaks of new Mac model numbers appeared to confirm an older discovery of six new Apple products in resellers' pipelines, according to an AppleInsider report. Dutch site OneMoreThing provided what looked like a Mac mini box shot, while French site MacBidouille claimed Apple was releasing new iMacs and Mac minis as soon as today. Both desktop computers are said to feature a model based on the NVIDIA design.
Of the six leaked model numbers, four SKUs ranging from MB417 to MB420 are allegedly new iMacs. Only one model would have a 20-inch screen, while the rest of the all-in-one systems would have 24-inch displays. The remaining two Macs are the minis, labeled (model numbers) MB463 and MB464, respectively. The labesls would represent low- and high-end versions of the updated computers. The systems are said to ship almost immediately.
Specifications, as posted over at AppleInsider, look a bit like this (hopefully, Apple's specs list will look the same, once the store is back up):
iMac
MB417: "Entry-level" 20-inch with 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM MB418: "Mid-range" 24-inch with 2.66GHz or 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM MB419: "High-end" 24-inch with 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM MB420: "Very high-end" 24-inch with 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM.
Mac mini
MB463: 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive MB464: Unknown Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM.
A tipster has also confirmed to tech-focused site Engadget that, besides refreshing the iMac and Mac mini, Apple is set to release four beefed up models of its high-end desktop computer system, the Mac Pro.
“The Mac Pro will come in eight-core configurations from 3.0GHz to 3.6GHz and 16-core configurations in 3.6GHz and 4.0GHz flavors, and it sounds like it's going to be even funkier on the video tip,” says the leak. Engadget's tipster added that the new Pro has “two regular DVI ports and a mini DisplayPort ... It's also apparently a bit lighter than the current model, at 35 pounds instead of 42.” The tipster, simply referred to as Tom, noted that the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule FCC filings also contain direct references to simultaneous 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation.
This is pretty much everything the Mac community is expecting to see. Hopefully, Apple will provide the remaining 50% of the confirmation when its store goes back online.